History of Air Navigation Law Paris Convention,1919 Havana Convention, Madrid Convention

1. Mohammad Faruque
Additional District & Sessions
Judge
LLB(Hons) LLM(University of Chittagong)
LLM in IP Law(University of Turin,Italy)
MS in Economics ( East West University)
Human Rights Law ( Nottingham University,UK)
BCS(Judicial)

2. Air Law or Aviation Law

3. Sources of Air Law
 Public International Law e.g Chicago
Convention,1994; Warsaw Convention 1929
 Private International Law; Tokoyo Convention
 Supernational Law-EU law for Member States
 Municipal Law: Domestic Law

4. Air Law or Aviation Law
 Law of –
- Air Craft
- Air Craft Passengers and Cargo
- Transit

5. First Flight in History
 17 December 1903
 Wilbur and Orrville Wright Brothers
Flew 120 Feeet at North Carolina,USA
 Birth of International Civil Aviation

6. History of Air Law
 Hot Air Balloon
 21 November 1783 Frenchman Jean-Francois
Pilatre de Rozier
 He flew 9 KM in 25 minutes over Paris
 1905, France formed first Aviation related
federation
 1908- Ten German Balloons crossed Franco-
German boarder and landed on French soil

7. History
 1st passenger-carrying flight happened in
1913 with the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat
Line
 1910- International Air Navigation Conference
was held in Paris
 Draft International Convention relating to Aerial
Navigation
 7 Chapters; 55 Articles and 3 Annexures

8. Legal Regime of Air Law
 Paris Convention 1919
 Madrid Convention 1926
 Havana Convention 1928
 Warsaw Convention,1929
 Chicago Convention,1944
 Tokoyo Convention,1963
 Montreal Convention,1999

9. 1910 Draft Int’l Convention
 7 Chapters-
- Nationality of Aircraft & Registration
- Approval & Airworthiness Certificates
- Authorization for Air Traffice within boarders &
above a National Territory
- Regulation of Take off & Landing of Flights
- Customs & Freight
- Public Aircraft
- Final Provisions

10. 3 Annexures
 Marks of Nationality & Registration
 Characterstics of Aircraft
 Rules of Air Traffic

11. Paris Conference,1910
 Conference were divided between the concept
of freedom in the air & the concept of a
national sovereignty that extended into
international air space.
 issue of equal treatment of all civil aircraft,
whether national or foreign, within usable
airspace was to become the obstacle beyond
which the conference was unable to progress.

12. Paris Conference 1910
 Cause of Failure-
- Issue of equal treatment of all civil aircraft,
whether national or foreign
- Whether airspace should be open to all (like
high seas)
- Whether states have sovereignty over
airspace
- Whether there should be right of innocent
passage or need prior authorization

13. History of Civil Aviation
 1911- British Parliament passed Ariel
Navigation Act
 World War I interrupted diplomatic
negotiations on civil aviation & demonstrated
the destructive but also valuable power of
aviation..

14. Paris Convention,1910
 International Air Navigation Conference,
Conférence internationale de navigation
aérienne, held in Paris on 18 May-29
June,1910
 19 European States (Austria-Hungary,
Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, England,
Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco,
Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia,
Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and
Turkey
 Conference failed due to political reasons

15. Paris Convention 1919
 1st international convention
 concluded under the auspices of the
International Commission for Air Navigation
 signed in Paris on October 13, 1919
 Signed by 27 states
 Ratified by 14 states
 Not ratified by USA due to its linkage with
League of Nations

16. Paris Convention 1919
 On July 11, 1922, the Paris Convention
entered into force after 14 countries had
ratified it
 remained in force until 1947 after the entry into
force of the Chicago Convention which
replaced it
 9 Chapters; 43 Articles
 8 Annexures
 the creation of the ICAN, which possessed
administrative, legislative, executive and
judicial powers, as well as being an advisory
body and a center of documentation.

17. General Principles of Paris
Convention1919
 Each nation has absolute sovereignty over the
airspace overlying its territories and waters
 Each nation should apply its airspace rules
equally to its own and foreign aircraft
 Aircraft of contracting states are to be treated
equally in the eyes of each nation's law
 Aircraft must be registered to a state, and they
possess the nationality of the state in which
they are registered.

18. 9 Chapters of Paris
Convention1919
 General Principles
 Nationality of aircraft
 Certificates of airworthiness and competency
 Admission to air navigation above foreign territory
 Rules to be observed on departure when under
way and on landing
 Prohibited transport
 State aircraft
 International Commission for air navigation
 Final Provisions

19. Havana Convention 1928
 Pan American Convention on Commercial
Aviation
 held in Havana, Cuba, from 16 January to 20
February 1928
 USA & 20 other States signed the Convention
on 20 February 1928.
 weakened the ICAN’s (International
Commission for Air Navigation)
 modeled after the Paris Convention
 it applied exclusively to private aircraft

20.  recognizing that every State had complete and
exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above
its territory and adjacent territorial waters
 enabled USA owned airlines to freely operate
services within North and South America.
 no attempt to develop uniform technical
standards
 No secretariat for periodic discussion
 had no Annexures; all rules were contained in
the treaty itself.

21. Havana Convention 1928
 signed by 21 States, it was finally ratified by 16
of them by 1944, i.e. Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Panama, Uruguay, the USA, and
Venezuela.
 registered with the League of Nations on 12
May 1932.
 The Secretary General of ICAN entered into
direct relations with the Director General of the
Pan-American Union

22. Havana Convention 1928
 Paris and Havana Conventions served a
useful purpose, they also caused some degree
of confusion in actual practice, since they were
two separate sets of rules.
 Not adequate for the years after World War II,
because of the immense wartime development
of aerial transport.
 Chicago on 7 November 1944 superseded
them;

23. Madrid Convention 1926
 Spain called Ibero-American Conference from
25-30 October,1926
 21 European & American States from Spanish
& Portuguese origin singed this convention 1
November,1926
 Ensures equal voting rights of the members
 7 states ratified
 Not registered with international body

24. Madrid Convention,1926
 Lack of success due to 3 factors-
- Aircraft of the period were not sufficiently
developed to tie together Iberia & Latin
America
- Spain’s political environment during that period
was unsettled
- A few years after the Madrid Convention, Latin
American focused on North America away
from Iberia.

25. Warsaw Convention 1929
 Unification of Rules of International
Transportation by Air
 define the liability of the carrier in case of loss,
damage, injury, or death due to accident on
international flights;
 spell out procedures for claims and restitution;
and
 lay down the requirements for format and
content of air transport documents, passenger
tickets, luggage tickets, and air consignment
notes

26. Warsaw Convention 1929
 Signed in 1929 in Warsaw (Poland) by 31
states,
 it has evolved into one of the most important
instruments of private international law
adhered to by 105 signatory nations.